I’m not sure, I think people might be over complicating socks. I have an O(n) pairing process that is about the same complexity as if I had the same socks all the time. If I encounter a sock I haven’t paired, it’s laid flat somewhere clean. Then when I pick up a sock I can do a visual o(1) lookup to find a pair, otherwise it’s laid flat where the others are. Eventually the unpaired socks are first examined if I didn’t miss any, and then are tossed if they’re just lost a pair.
On Having Enough Socks (2019)
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Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)
#12In order to avoid the effort of pairing socks, I once had the genius idea of buying them all the same colors. Then all hell broke loose as the color may be the same, but they were from different pairs still and so became more difficult to pair: you will lose an individual sock but not a pair. I stopped losing socks as I began buying them in bright colors so pairs where trivial to spot in all the sock journey during l…
I avoid the effort of pairing socks by just not doing it. Sometimes people notice and ask whether I bought them like that, in the end nobody cares. When a sock is worn down I can throw it away and still use the other one. Works well for me.
Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)
#13So, what's the solution to pairing socks? Buying many pairs from the same. Sure. That makes sense. But what happens when half of them are lost or damaged and you can't buy the same kind? Do you end up as someone pairing socks again or do you throw away half of your socks?
You can always demote the other half of socks to cleaning supplies. They are really useful to stick your hand into and start going to all those hard to reach places all around the house, gathering dust. When done, just turn them inside out to trap the dust inside and THEN throw them away.
Just make sure to clean them first. :)
Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)
#14I’m not sure, I think people might be over complicating socks. I have an O(n) pairing process that is about the same complexity as if I had the same socks all the time. If I encounter a sock I haven’t paired, it’s laid flat somewhere clean. Then when I pick up a sock I can do a visual o(1) lookup to find a pair, otherwise it’s laid flat where the others are. Eventually the unpaired socks are first examined if I didn’…
I use the same, but for me it's definitely n^2, because the visual lookup is not constant. Some of the problem might be that I am old, stupid, and slow, but also because I (stupidly) have a lot of socks that look quite similar, but are not the same. Sometimes I even have to lift them up and feel them to notice that they are different!
Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)
#15I’m not sure, I think people might be over complicating socks. I have an O(n) pairing process that is about the same complexity as if I had the same socks all the time. If I encounter a sock I haven’t paired, it’s laid flat somewhere clean. Then when I pick up a sock I can do a visual o(1) lookup to find a pair, otherwise it’s laid flat where the others are. Eventually the unpaired socks are first examined if I didn’…
You either have a very small amount of socks, or a very good spatial memory to be able to claim the visual lookup of socks on the surface is O(1).
With my brain, it's closer to O(n!).
(This is the worst, nerdiest collection of sentences I've written in my life.)
Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)
#16I accidentally solved this problem by entirely side-stepping socks, because I could, because I switched from management to programming, and I don't live in a cold country.
For about a decade now, I've worn open sandals pretty much everywhere and for almost every occasion. The few times I've had to wear socks (because, dress shoes), I've found some pairs handy in my closet.
Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)
#17So, what's the solution to pairing socks? Buying many pairs from the same. Sure. That makes sense. But what happens when half of them are lost or damaged and you can't buy the same kind? Do you end up as someone pairing socks again or do you throw away half of your socks?
If you rotate your socks appropriately the other half is probably about to be damaged anyway, so just throw them out. The savings on using each sock until the very end are marginal.
Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)
#18There's a few comments - seemingly from our American friends - that seem to suggest that left / right socks are a thing. I'm hoping I'm parsing those comments poorly, but ever since the revelation that Americans don't have kettles, I'm prepared for the worst.
I got fed up with poor socks a few years ago and embarked on a project to try to find the best, or at least consistently decent, work socks. That's work in the sense of stomping around in the workshop or outdoors, in heavy duty boots, spending most of my day standing up or moving around -- not work as in sitting at a chair for 8h while wearing mildly uncomfortable but aesthetically appropriate footwear, occasionally shuffling around a carpeted floor, etc.
Anyway, that was basically a despairing effort. Unsurprisingly, everyone claiming to have the best socks did not, in fact, have the best socks.
I did end up with a stack of hard-yakka bamboo socks, which were surprisingly comfortable when worn with big heavy blundstone boots, but about a year after discovering (and building up quite a large collection) I moved to hard-yakka boots, and then found out that the combination of their bamboo socks with their boots would result in a very uncomfortable bunching of sock around the ankle.
Bonds - very popular purveyors of socks and daks and other necessities here in Straya - have some work socks that I've since settled on, though a top-up purchase made a few months ago suggest they've changed their recipe from ~18 months back, feels like a higher ratio of nylon to cotton, but alas no record was maintained of the first tranche, so I am wary, but so far satisfied.
(For actual day-job work socks, Bonds here also do a range of basic-black that come in 3-pair sets, which have tiny lines of primary colours along the toes, red, green, blue, etc - originally I thought that was quite twee as it would help maintain pairs, but in practice it just feels like a way to shift more product - as there's no reason, beyond obsession, to match 'miscoloured stripe' pairs, but when one of a pair inevitably expires, you're then left with the difficult decision of committing fully to going pairless in the sock drawer, or throwing away a perfectly fine sock out of sympathy.)
Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)
#19I have the opposite problem: I feel I'm running out of socks and buy them too often. If only this carried over to other aspects of maintenance I'd be in business.
Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)
#20In order to avoid the effort of pairing socks, I once had the genius idea of buying them all the same colors. Then all hell broke loose as the color may be the same, but they were from different pairs still and so became more difficult to pair: you will lose an individual sock but not a pair. I stopped losing socks as I began buying them in bright colors so pairs where trivial to spot in all the sock journey during l…
I am in the same sock hell and have been for many years. I no longer believe that the sock pairing problem can be solved for me.